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Trevor Volpe's Guide to Writing Games
Written by Trevor Volpe Opening Hello friends; I know that I'm not the most seasoned game writer, especially since I've only written two games, however, many of the people that I have spoken to have this feeling that it's sort of unclear as to how you go about writing a game. So, since I've been told that I'm good at organizing data for my own game projects that I've been working on, I've decided to write this comprehensive guide for new game writers that want to try their hands at it. Due to my lack of experience with writing games, take everything I write here with a grain of salt, however, I invite each and every game writer from the Wayfinder Experience to dive in to my opinions on this matter, because I do believe this is a subject worth openly investigating, for game writers of old and new ones to come. --Trevor So, You Want To Write A Game? Writing a game can be a very rewarding thing, however, it is a very large commitment. Game writing has long hours (generally extending on into the very early mornings), it can be time consuming, and creatively draining; however, everybody loves to see their greatest creative work come to life before their eyes. When you truly decide that you are going to write a game, there are a lot of things to think about before you actually start building the foundation of your game. Many people decide on writing games, and their creative ideas flourish for a bit, and then they sort of lose touch with their worlds and never get around to writing them. This is a very sad thing, because although these stories live on in our minds, it would be fantastic if every story could be played somewhere along the lines; however, it requires discretion to decide which stories would fit well with our large community. Also, just because you write a game doesn't mean it will be accepted, which means, to become a game writer it is important to understand that not every game will be played. With the growing amount of games submitted each year, and the limited amount of spots for games to actually be played, it is competitive to actually create an idea that has both function and creative instilled throughout it. This guide isn't set in stone; it is merely my opinion on the matter of writing game, and is to be interpreted liberally. Conceptualization When you actually decide that you are going to write a game, you may decide that you are going to write your game alone, or with a partner. Either way, you or your partners are going to have to work together to come up with an idea upon which to base your game. There are many different ways of doing this; when I wrote the Exodus, I simply based it off of one concept that my friend Luke Stremouchow and I had come up with on the fly; from there, it developed into a very large world. Mostly every game writer creates their game based off of some form of inspiration; inspiration is what makes creativity boom. Some people may feel as though being inspired off of something else too much could cause their game to be too similar to something else. Whether or not you want to be careful about taking too much from your inspiration is something to take into account when conceptualizing your game. Below, I am going to categorize conceptualization of games into a few small categories; The Big Bang Method Starting out with a small concept or theme on which to base your game, this is what I call the Big Bang Concept. Essentially, you come up with an idea for your game, such as 'Which hunt', or 'Corrupt King' or some small defining concept that you want to intertwine with your story. This method of coming up with an initial concept for your game requires a lot of creative thinking, that is generally not very well documented or is spur of the moment. You'll be sitting down, thinking, when all of a sudden a hundred ideas will pop into your head, sending the game exploding out in every direction; if you are good at managing your creativity, you can transform this explosion of ideas into a beautifully coordinated game! Most games do have an element of the Big Bang concept in them, because when a game writer actually starts to come up with cool ideas, they lead to hundreds more in a chain-reaction sort of way. The beautiful thing about this form of game writing is that when you actually begin to write your game, only a touch of your inspiration may influence the outcome of your game (unless you add a lot of other things based off of other inspirations throughout the creation of your story). Nevertheless, your game, if based off of the Big Bang concept, will probably be connected to its original point by a very fine line, be it plot-based or simply a creative undertone, it may be hard to notice the correlation between the story and the original influence. This can work to the advantage of the game writer. The Outside-In Method With the Outside-In method, generally, the game writer has a whole bunch of ideas that they definitively want to include in the creation of their game. This writing style, although sometimes a little bit more disorganized, often requires that the game writer(s) have several inspirations that they pull off of when they build their story. Building the story from outside-in manifests itself in many different ways; from starting with a world, and then focusing in on the details until you build the story about the world, or starting from a galaxy; the Outside-In method generally requires that the writer start from a point beyond an initial concept, and then work backwards to an initial concept. The pros of the method is that, if you have a specific overtone that comes from an inspiration, you can assure that it will be boldly stated in your story's world. For instance, if a writer has a particular character or world that they specifically want to have included, or perhaps they have elements of a story that they want to imbue into their world, they can start from this point in order to maintain the strength of their inspiration in their game. The cons of the method is that, the story can often be disorganized; because you start thinking from a limited perspective, or because you start off by possibly limiting your potential choices of how the game's background should be, you may end up fracturing your attention and losing overall control over how your game comes out. The Dedication Method These sorts of games are generally directly based off of something else; although they may be altered to appear differently, writers of these sorts of games want the image of their inspiration to be their game. Some people criticize dedicated games because they are unoriginal, however, to write a game, it requires a lot of creative output and change to the inspiration to actually make it work as an adventure game or scenario. Game writers that use this method will open up with an idea, such as 'Kingdom Hearts' or, 'Zelda', and they will create a game that incorporates heavy elements of other stories, interpreting other creative works into their own creative works. This method takes a lot of work, because it requires a very particular editing eye; some one who is able to pick apart an idea, and fill in the blanks that another story may have in it, blanks that may be unavoidable in an adventure game or scenario. This method often creates a sense of living another story; it can be rather fun, especially if the other story is a very mainstream or often considered idea. Living another story, or changing another story in ways that a game writer has always desired to see it play out, can create wonderfully creative settings that have few limits. A problem with this method, however, is that eventually these sorts of games can become redundant. Playing multiple final fantasy 7 games could be boring, even if it was changed drastically; the characters or the setting may be the same. Game writers who choose this method should be very careful, especially when considering their audience. Also Wayfinder isn't so keen on running these kinds of games so much anymore! Er, at all. Writing these games can get your heart broken. Other Methods... There are infinite different ways that you can write a game, so choose whichever method that you feel most comfortable with. If you are the zany type, who writes stories in a very unique way; go for it. Follow your passion, and convey your story through whichever medium you feel is the closest to your heart, this way, your story doesn't lose its initial integrity. Be creative, and have fun! The Aftermath After you have come up with an interesting starting point for your game, it's a good idea for you to begin to document the different ideas that you come up with on some hard-form of media. Taping your conversations with your web cam, scribbling down notes on a note pad, drawing pictures of your newly created ideas; the different forms of documentation for your new game are unlimited, however, they are essential. Keeping a sort of view book of your different ideas is important, so that you can refer back to your different ideas later on when you actually decide to write the game procedurally. Some game writers believe that they can keep everything stored in their heads, however, the integrity of their original ideas may be lost in the crossfire of creating new ideas. Keeping documentation of your older ideas is a good idea, even if you don't plan on using every single one of them. No matter how small the idea is, even if it's just a blurb or some random commentary; write it down! Do something, just don't lose it during the creative process! You may end up working on your game later, and realizing that something very key is missing; this can be catastrophic, because you may end up having to change your game entirely just because you forgot a very key idea. Defining Your Game When you finally come up with an idea for your game, and you have creatively documented tons of random ideas, it is time to begin to truly define aspects of your game. Taking all of the raw creative energy you have used, you can now begin to consider many different things about all of the ideas you have considered before choosing your own pathway for writing your game. Decide what your initial focus is going to be, and start from there. :"When Luke and I started working on The Exodus, we decided that the focus of our game was going to be a witch hunt. I knew immediately that I wanted to write a high fantasy game, and so, from there we sort of questioned how we were going to turn a fantasy game into a witch hunt. The Exodus is what we got. So, I decided that I wanted our game to be detailed in terms of its history and geography. We started off focusing on what our world was like, then its governments, and then from there the individual groups in its society. We detailed the tenets and beliefs of the groups, and from there, everything magnified in intensity." Focusing on individual parts, as opposed to focusing on every part, can lead to a more productive method of finishing your game. If you focus on one group at a time, or one section of the world at a time, you will give each individual portion the tenderness it needs to become a fleshed out idea. Instead of focusing your attention on everything, and ending up with some parts that are half finished, you are better off finishing off as many of the parts as you can to a fuller dimension, and make alterations to the parts that are less developed, or make cuts later on. Organizing ideas about certain sociological aspects of your game into a folder on your computer is an idea, or perhaps describing different characters in a household is the sort of perspective you wish to take; either way, it's important to focus on the areas you want to have completed the most first. Fleshing Out Ideas If you come up with a very small idea, like, "I want this character to be fastidious", or "This group is going to be a cult", it's a good idea to focus on the specifics of those ideas. That character who is fastidious; why is he fastidious? Is he very judgemental, or is he a comedic critic? How is he fastidious? How about that cult, do you want them to be violent? Animalistic? What is the cult's history in relation to your world's history, how is it relevant to your story? Is it relevant? There are infinite questions to be asked about any one part of your game; it's up to you, as the effective manager of your game, to decide which questions are the most important ones to answer and document. World Scaping An important aspect of the creation of your game is the setting. Some game writers may want to play their setting from a very limited perspective; others, want to play theirs chock full of information about the entire universe. It's important to consider how you want to go about it, however, there are many questions you may want to ask about your world and universe. A couple of questions you can ask, before actually designing the world yourself, are as follows. Cosmology #Is this a new world? Is it a remade world? Is it a modified frame of time from another world? #Is the world young, or old? #Where is this world in the cosmos? #What are the planes like? The planets, galaxies, stars? #Are there non-native beings in this world? Religion #Are the gods uninvolved, dead, evil, good, psychotic? #What and when was the supposed creation? #What were the previous ages like? What is the current age like? #Have good religions spread more than bad religions? Are there religions? #What keeps the balance between good and evil? What keeps good or evil in charge? Science #Is there anything unique about the physical earth, plants, air, sky, sun, moon, stars, water and weather? #What are the races in your world like? Are there many races? Few? One? #What is the level of technology? #What is the wildlife like? History #Is the world a future/past version of an existing world? #How did the world get to this point in time? What events or circumstances led to the current way of life in your world? #Were there major historical events that shaped the world? Has history not played a major effect on the world? #Are there important differences between racial histories, or sociological/group differences? Magic #Does magic function the way it does in WFE's standard magic system? #Is there psionics, druidic magic, improv magic, or any other sort of special conventional magic system involved? #Are there special power sources in your world? Sociology #What is day-to-day life like in this world? For PC's? SPC's? #Are there social classes? What is life like for each individual social class? #What is civilization like? Is there any? #Are there cities? Are cities common? Is the world mainly rural, or torn apart? #What are families like? #Are there political factions? #What liberties do adventurers, or the main focus groups of your stories have? #Are men/women/old/young the favored social status? #What is the role of status in your world? How influential is it? #What's used for currency? Is possession illegal #How do people feel about society? Their governments? Leaders? #How do groups feel about other groups in society, or in your game? Geography #Are there multiple continents? #Are there major bodies of water? #Are there important, large, geographical features? (I.e. deserts, tundras, mountains)? #Are there special landmarks? #How does the geography correspond to the cities or the people that live there? Anthropology #What types of races can people play? Would it be realistic for players to be casted as certain races in your game? Groups? #Do the 5 senses (6) function like they do in real life? Not all of these questions will apply to your game, however, they are a good starting point when considering how to write your game. The most important thing is, if there are questions you feel you should address about your world, document them carefully and incorporate them into the background of your story. It's a good idea to have a lot of information about your world to tell your players, so that they feel that they are immersed in a functional, living, breathing world. The Nitty Gritty Now that you've begun to document your world a bit, it's time for you to start formatting and making hard copies or finalized documentations of things about your game. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ WORK IN PROGRESS. UNFINISHED. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~